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Sacred Himalayas for Water, Livelihoods, and Bio-Cultural Heritage

A high-level consultative meeting on the climate change impact in the southern slopes of the Eastern Himalayas concluded in Kathmandu with a roadmap for the planning of activities leading up to the proposed ‘Climate Summit for a Living Himalayas – Bhutan 2011’.

Delegates from the four participating countries – Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan – expressed their appreciation and pledged support for the sub-regional initiative started by the Royal Govt. of Bhutan, towards finalising climate adaptation plans that the Eastern Himalayan nations can use in their efforts to adapt to the changes happening in the region.

Experts presented four papers on water, energy, biodiversity and food security. They outlined the emerging issues, gaps and challenges in the region and suggested a way forward for carrying out national and regional consultations.

The high level meeting agreed to work together towards the Bhutan Climate Summit 2011 within national and regional adaptation frameworks by preparing individual country roadmaps on the water, energy, biodiversity and food security sectors. The meeting identified the names of lead agencies and/or institutions to take the process forward in each country and the region. Each country will serve as a lead country for one of the four themes: Bangladesh will lead in water, Bhutan in biodiversity, India in food security, and Nepal in energy.

The concluding session was attended by State Minister for Environment and Forest of Bangladesh, Dr. Hasan Mahmud; Minister of Agriculture and Forest of Bhutan, Dr. Pema Gyamtsho; Minister of Environment of Nepal, Mr. Thakur Prasad Sharma; and Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests, India, Mr. Jayant Mauskar. Senior government delegates, experts from government and civil society organizations, and representatives of international agencies including ICIMOD, UNDP, FAO and WWF also attended the meeting. Mr. Thakur Prasad Sharma, Minister of Environment, GON chaired the final session and delivered the closing remarks. In his speech, he highlighted the inter-dependencies, inter-relationship and inter-linkages between the uplands and lowlands situation in the Himalayas. He also emphasised the importance of Bhutan’s initiative to Nepal’s Mountain Alliance Initiative to highlight the impacts of climate change on mountain ecosystems. He called upon the delegates for a holistic approach. The Minister of Agriculture, Bhutan informed the gathering that the initiative taken by Bhutan aims to work for a vision of ‘Sacred Himalayas for Water, Livelihoods, and Bio-Cultural Heritage’ and that this is an action oriented effort. The state Minister of Bangladesh emphasized the need to address the social, economic and environmental challenges in an integrated manner. The leader of the Indian delegation highlighted the role of both modern and traditional knowledge.

Beautiful People by Pradeep Swar is a fast moving story that carries us across continents. It is a story of two families totally unknown to each other and coming from separate cultures. It is the tale of how their fortunes came to cross paths in the High Himalayan and the dusty plains of North India. The story carries us over a period of almost two decades and tells us to the varying fortunes of our two families whose second generation comes together as students in the Eastern Hill station of Darjeeling, the famed tea producing centre. The underlying current of terrorism and the activities of the crime nexus bring us back to the stark realities of the present day world where none are truly secure and can never know when violence may strike.

At time, the realization comes as a result. The path to finding that result may be very rugged and evil may strew its way in the very familiar form of violence, but howsoever bad the case may be, all seems good if at the end, the result is good.

It is a wonder and a miracle if something, even a little good thing comes out of a violent and inhumane behavior. That result is then beautiful.

Such is the case with Omar. A driven and orthodox mastermind he is, who will stop at nothing until he gets his vengeance. And he is going to use anything and anyone to claim it and will wipe out anything and anyone on his path to get it.

Then, there are the other people. Those everyday people who live an undistributed life and who are suddenly entangled in this tumultuous chain of threatening events.  “The strife of humanity is when a human uses another wrongly.” But evil has power and so does innocence and these clash to bring out an eye-opening truth in front of our eyes. That it is a beautiful world filled with beautiful people.

Title: Beautiful People

Author: Pradeep Swar

Edition: First Edition

Cover: Paperback

Subject: Fiction

Pages: 225

Size (mm): 140 x217

Weight (grams):260

Price: US$ 8.75

Pradeep Swar, 19, is a young and promising young Nepali author wrote this story at the tender age of 16. He himself was a student in Darjeeling has used much of his own personal experience of the region to give depth and interest to his first full length novel.

Conflicting behaviour of glaciers, such as retreating, advancing, and even surging, within small distances poses difficult questions for scientists.

Scientists agreed to improve collaboration on scientific and technical research on the impacts of climate change on the cryosphere of the Indus basin covering the four Hindu Kush-Himalayan countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and China  at a recent workshop on ‘Climate and environmental change impacts on the cryosphere of the Indus basin and its implications for future water scenarios’. It is expected that this approach will facilitate sharing of experiences to create an environment of ownership of scientific work among regional government institutions engaged in sustainable water resource management in the Indus basin.  The workshop was organised by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Kathmandu, Nepal from 2-4 July 2010.

At the workshop, delegates identified key gaps in knowledge about the Indus basin. Conflicting behaviour of glaciers, such as retreating, advancing, and even surging, within small distances poses difficult questions for scientists.  Lack of observation at high altitude, where most of the mass accumulation takes place, creates a hurdle to our understanding of the impact of climate change on glaciers and meltwater generation. Some revealing results were presented at the workshop, such as the extent of the impact of black carbon on accelerating the melting of snow and ice, which could locally surpass the effect of greenhouse gases (GHG).

The ‘Indus River Basin Programme’ will  facilitate  research,  collection and analysis  of scientific and socioeconomic trends, as well as strengthening current research and proposing new research and development interventions and approaches. The programme will provide a platform for sharing the knowledge gained as well as state-of-the-art approaches and interventions planned for future work on climate and environmental change and water resource management in the Indus River Basin.

The Director General of ICIMOD, Dr. Andreas Schild said that the Indus Basin was important because of its extreme sensitivity to climate and environmental changes and because of the huge size of the population dependent on the water generated from the highlands.

The keynote address was given by Professor Matthias Winiger, Vice Chancellor, University of Bonn, Germany. Professor Winiger illustrated the key facets of water balance in the Indus Basin and the importance of understanding and managing its water resources. Professor Winiger also emphasised the need for clarity about changes taking place and the importance of improved and representative data based on long-term monitoring to mimic the system, glacial mass balance measurements, and climate-change scenarios.  He called for an Indus Basin Decade and proposed 10-point suggestions of future undertakings in the basin. Professor Winiger stated that ICIMOD could play a lead role in this.

Regional representatives at policy- and decision-making levels also recognise the need to improve the monitoring of snow, ice and water resources in the HKH in order to provide valid and useful information as a basis for their work.

The Indus River Basin is important economically. The basin has 6 main rivers originating from glaciers in the Western Himalayas, the Karakoram, and the Hindu Kush which are sources of irrigation for over 16 million hectares (ha) of agricultural land and provide hydropower to Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan. Glacial fluctuations and changes in precipitation patterns are expected to alter the hydrology of the river basin, hence jeopardising hydropower generation and agricultural production and consequently altering people’s livelihoods.

UCPN-M has said that their demonstrations will be peaceful. The Government has said that no unnecessary force will be used. But the fear is high.

The Representative of the UN Secretary General and UNMIN Chief, Karin Landgren, has said that- “Nepal’s unique national peace process has arrived at a difficult phase”. She added -“There are grave concerns about the direction that it may take in the coming days”. 

United CPN (Maoists) is organizing May Day rallies and celebrations in major cities across the country on May 1. But after 1 May, the situation is unpredictable, and may seriously endanger the peace process.

Speaking at the press conference today Landgren strong urged “the parties to come to an agreement rapidly, before this situation escalates. The major parties have indicated publicly, and also emphasized to me, their willingness to reach an agreement”.

She expressed deep concerns that “despite these peaceful intentions, potential spoilers of the peace process could provoke a clash”. She added-“ I appeal to all parties and groups to exercise maximum restraint, and underline that unity amongst the parties has been the driving force of the peace process, and remains the best prospect for permanent peace in Nepal”.

Nepal's Constituent Assembly (CA) Members inside CA hall in Kathmandu

Dear Constituent Assembly Members,

Today Nepal is in a cross road with 100 days left until (May 28) the deadline to declare new constitution from the constitution Assembly. Significant work underway but many promised and processes yet to be fulfilled. There are lots of constraints, difficulties to go ahead.

In past 2-3 years we achieved remarkable political changes in our history. CA election is over; country is the newest republic in the world. We said goodbye to the king. A new hope, a dream came true. We changed the course of history and opened the door of freedom and future.

We are eagerly waiting for May 28th’s historic moment when constituent assembly announces a new constitution which will be prepared by you (members of an elected constituent assembly) first time ever in Nepal’s history. But it is still in limbo. You are divided significantly and clearly seen lack of cooperation between political parties, discussion and debate is not going smoothly in Constituent Assembly.

Nepal is passing through the transitional phase. What type of constitution should we have and when – it’s a big question and concern for every citizen of this great country.

We, over 28 Million people of Nepal nominated you for the historical responsibility to draft a new constitution. Today, we are deeply sad, worried and disappointed seeing that the very slow progress. Time is running out!

Nepal’s future depends on what you will make the decisions in next one hundred days, we really want constitution on time; please make clear decisions with moral responsibility on time. You have time, mandate and historical responsibility. You must do that, believe on yourself. Please not let down our dream, expectation and hope.

You have no time to waste. We do not accept any delay on this which will be historic injustice towards us – Nepalese people.

Hansha Sanjyal